Violence as far right hails advance

The British National Party clashed violently with anti-racist campaigners last night as it made unprecedented gains across the country and became the second largest party in Burnley.

The far-right party won five extra seats in the Lancashire town, where riots broke out in 2001, and saw councillors elected in Calderdale,Dudley, Sandwell, Broxbourne and Stoke-on Trent. However, there were violent clashes in nearby Oldham after the BNP leader, Nick Griffin, failed to take his target seat. Not one of the party's 25 candidates in Sunderland managed a victory. Anti-Nazi League demonstrators traded punches and kicks with BNP supporters before police moved in and Mr Griffin was forced to leave by a side entrance, accompanied by minders.

The BNP's breakthrough in Burnley brought its total to eight seats, pushing the Liberal Democrats, who were down one to seven seats, into third place. The party fielded a record 212 candidates nationwide and its gamble appeared to have paid off with victories for the first time in the West Midlands and the South-east. Previously the party had won seats in by-elections only to lose them in regular polls, but last night it was beginning to look like an electoral force in impoverished, urban areas.

Early returns showed the party had won two seats in Sandwell, one in Dudley, one seat in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, and one in Stoke-on-Trent. They doubled their tally to two in Calderdale.

Simon Bennett, a BNP spokesman, said he was "delighted and shocked" by the Burnley results and suggested that the party would seek a seat on the council's ruling executive. "Last time we kicked the door open. This time we have kicked through it. I just hope that other parties will accept that we are part of the political landscape in Burnley and work with us," he said.

Shahid Malik, a member of Labour's ruling National Executive Committee, said: "We've got to get this in perspective. There are some 22,000 councillors in this country, the BNP have got 15 or so. But one BNP councillor in this country is one too many." He said he wished the TV cameras had captured the Nazi salutes given by victorious Burnley BNP candidates as they left the count. "That is the true face of this party, it's seig-heiling salutes," he said.